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Neal Caffrey
|lastappearance= |seasons= 1, 2, 3,4 |count= |images=Neal Caffrey }} Neal George Caffrey is charming, sexy, sophisticated, and is considered to be one of the world's greatest con artists. Neal was an elusive White Collar criminal, and after a three-year chase, he was eventually apprehended by FBI agent Peter Burke. Extremely crafty and cunning, Neal was only convicted of Bond Forgery, which was just one of the many crimes he was suspected of. But with only four months left on his four-year prison sentence, Neal escapes prison after a visit from his girlfriend, Kate Moreau. He is found once more by Peter, in whom he confides that Kate had left him, and he left prison to get her back. To avoid staying in prison for another four years and to be able continue his search for Kate, Neal offers to help find the criminal Burke is hunting, as long as he can be released into Burke's custody. After successfully apprehending the criminal, Neal is allowed to serve his remaining four-year sentence on a work-release program as a consultant to the FBI. Character Profile Neal is known for his good looks, his fitness, his brilliant out-of-the-box thinking, ability to talk, lie or charm his way out of (or into) anything, and charisma. These traits prove to be crucial necessities in his line of work, and serve as an advantage in the many instances where his or another person's life is on the line. Early Life Neal was born to a man named James and an unnamed mother, maiden name Caffrey. His last name at birth is unknown, though it may be Bennett. (Diminishing Returns, Parting Shots, Compromising Positions) Neal mentions that his father died when he was two years old. His mother told him that his father "went out in a hail of gunfire taking out a whole gang of bad guys," and Neal grew up wanting to be just like him. It was in this period that he "got really good with guns." However, at the end of the episode, Neal finally admits to Peter that his dad was a dirty cop, and that his mother only told him what children would want to hear about their fathers. (What Happens in Burma) Catherine Hill, known by her alias of Ellen Parker, later reveals that Neal's father James had been arrested for the murder of a police officer when Neal was two years old. Other evidences found indicated that James was a corrupt cop as well, and Ellen, who had been James' partner, had been forced to arrest James. She—along with Neal and his mother—was later placed into Witness Protection as a result of her involvement in the case. Neal was then raised under the belief that his name was Danny Brooks, and that his father was a police officer who died heroically. (Diminishing Returns, What Happens in Burma) According to Ellen, Neal had a habit of conning people, even as a young boy. As he was often late for school, Neal attempted to solve this problem by setting the school's clock 30 minutes behind schedule, but the plan was thwarted almost immediately. Neal then made another more intricate attempt by barricading the roads in order to reroute the school buses to pass by his house. Neal exclaims that "plan actually worked," as it lasted a few days. Later, he "got smarter" and forged his own bus pass. After that, Neal states that "he was never late again." (Parting Shots) Neal mentions that at the age of nine, he frequented a pool hall on his way home from school. June states, "A pool hall in St. Louis, Missouri. Must've been full of hustlers." St. Louis is later confirmed to be where Neal—as Danny Brooks—spent his childhood. (Stealing Home, Parting Shots) At the age of 18, Ellen tells Neal the truth about his father. As a result, Neal leaves WitSec, changes his name back to Neal, takes on his mother's maiden name and moves to New York City. It is implied that learning the truth about his father is what started Neal down the criminal path. (Diminishing Returns) Little else is known about Neal, other than the fact he didn't finish high school, and that his extensive knowledge of art and history is apparently self-taught. Sometime after arriving in NYC, he meets Mozzie. Mozzie sees Neal con a man out of $500 and has a street kid follow Neal to his apartment, where Mozzie later approaches him and begins their long-time partnership. He and Mozzie target a CEO named Vincent Adler, and through Adler, Neal adopts his signature clothing preferences, encounters a fractal, and meets erstwhile lover and fellow thief Alexandra Hunter and long-time girlfriend Kate, for whom he chose to sacrifice the con-job for and instead invest in Adler's company. Soon after, Adler disappears and is revealed to be a conman as well, taking hundreds of millions in US dollars and leaving all of his employees—including Neal and Kate—jobless and without pay. (Forging Bonds) Broke and unemployed, Neal chooses to tell Kate about his true profession. After this, Neal, Kate, and Mozzie begin running scams together, until the day Neal tries to cajole Kate into leaving for Europe. When Neal mentions Copenhagen to her, Kate gets upset and reveals that she knows about the music box job that Alex had told him about when they first met. She accuses Neal of trying to con her and stays in New York when Neal left for Copenhagen. Unfortunately, the job fails without her, forcing Neal to leave Alex in a French hospital (where she was presumably arrested) and escape back to New York. (Forging Bonds) Upon his return, Neal discovers that Kate is hiding from him and eventually starts doing bigger cons and forgeries, trying to catch her attention. The FBI eventually track her down and realize that Neal has no idea where Kate is, so they set up a trap for him to find her. This is how Agent Peter Burke eventually catches him. (Forging Bonds) Season One Neal is in SuperMax and nearing the end of his four-year sentence when Kate arrives and tells him that she is leaving him, and that their meeting was to be her last visit to him. Confused and hurt, Neal attempts and fails to dissuade her, wherein he hatches a month-long plan to escape prison and convince her not to leave him. Successfully pulling off the plan, Neal goes to her last known address and finds it empty. Later, Agent Burke arrives to arrest him once again, and a dismayed Neal willingly goes with him. Before they leave, Neal sees a fiber on Agent Burke's shoulder, and an idea hatches in his mind. Neal makes Agent Burke promise to visit him in prison if Neal tells him what the fiber is. When Agent Burke makes good on his promise, Neal present his idea—a shift in his sentence from jail-time to full-time consultation for the FBI. He sweetens the deal by suggesting and consenting to a GPS tracking anklet, which would monitor his location 24/7. Agent Burke states that he's aware that Neal wants to get out of prison to look for Kate, which Neal does not deny. When Neal is released from prison to work with the FBI, he is given a seedy motel room the FBI rented for him. Agent Burke explains that Neal's monthly budget is $700, hence the less than desirable living conditions. Soon after Peter leaves him at the motel, Neal—while miserably browsing in a thrift store—befriends a rich widow named June, who was donating her late husband's designer suits. Neal is taken on as a boarder in June's townhouse. He acquires not only a more than comfortable residence, but also a new wardrobe of expensive suits, shoes, and hats—which become his signature look. It is later revealed that someone with an FBI ring was forcing Kate to find the music box that Neal was rumored to have stolen. However, Neal hadn't stolen the box, and claimed that the person who'd ever come closest to it was Alex Hunter. He then enlists Alex's help to find and steal the box, hoping to get Kate back that way. He finds out that the man with the FBI ring is Agent Garrett Fowler, and that Fowler himself had been blackmailed into finding the music box as well. Upon giving the music box to him, Fowler reveals that Kate had made a deal with him—Neal's freedom and new identities for the both of them in exchange for the music box. This prompted Fowler to begin Operation Mentor, which is says is "all about Neal." However, before Neal and Kate can escape on a chartered plane, Agent Burke arrives to stop Neal from leaving, and is just in time to save Neal as the plane explodes, but with Kate in it. Season Two Because of the actions he took to acquire the box for Fowler, Neal is sent back to prison. Agent Peter Burke seemingly pulls some strings to get Neal his consulting sentence back, and Neal agrees to it once more, but with a different agenda—he was going to find and get his revenge on Fowler, who he believes blew up the plane to kill him and Kate. He finds out that Fowler had gone underground, and in order to lure him out, Neal contacts Alex Hunter once again. Alex, however, does not want to help because someone is after her—the same someone who had been after Neal for the music box. Their plan to steal the music box becomes two-fold: to get Fowler out in the open, and to get the target off of Alex's back. The plan proves successful, but Neal is unable to extract revenge on Fowler because of Peter Burke's intervention. He is later grateful for Peter's actions when they find out that Fowler hadn't been the one to 'pull the trigger.' Fowler explains that there had been explosives in the plane because Kate and Neal were supposed to parachute out of it over the ocean, which would cause everyone to think they were dead and allow them a fresh start. It is later revealed to Neal that the man who killed Kate and was after the music box was Neal's former employer, Vincent Adler, who turns out to be the son of a Nazi soldier involved in hiding a U-boat full of Nazi treasure. To a similar effect, Alex Hunter admits that she is the granddaughter of Gerhardt Vaugner, who had been the U-boat's radio operator. Vaugner created a mathematical equation—called a fractal—that was meant to lead him back to the sunken U-boat. He placed it inside the music box, which was the reason why both Adler and Alex were after it. Adler eventually finds the U-boat and kidnaps Alex, Neal and Peter, using Alex as a hostage to force Neal and Peter to open the TNT-lined entrance and scout ahead inside the ship. Neal and Peter eventually find the treasure, after which Adler has them escorted out of the ship and brought to a drydock. With orders to flood the drydock, Adler's men leave Neal, Peter and Alex there to drown. However, Alex reveals that she has a knife in her bra, and Neal uses it to free himself and his companions. They are then saved by Mozzie, Sara Ellis, Diana Barrigan and Clinton Jones. Later, they are able to find Adler, who admits to Neal that he killed Kate just as the warehouse full of the U-boat treasure explodes. Enraged, Adler blames Neal for blowing up the treasure and aims a gun at him, but Peter arrives in time and shoots him first, killing Adler and saving Neal. Season Three When Neal arrives back at his apartment, he finds a key and an address, in which he discovers that the supposedly blown-up treasure. Mozzie had apparently swapped the treasure for the items in Neal's art studio, allowing Adler and the FBI to believe that the treasure was destroyed. Mozzie is excited and begins to make plans for him and Neal to leave New York, though Neal is reluctant to leave because of his friends and Sara, who he is dating. Eventually, Neal realizes that Peter suspects him of stealing the U-boat treasure, and discovers that a piece of the burned art had been salvaged. He replaces the burnt piece with a new one that he makes out of the colors from one of the older paintings from the treasure to convince Peter that the piece of burnt art was part of the destroyed treasure. For a while, this placates Peter, until Neal hears about the manifest Diana has apparently found in the wreckage, meaning that if any of the treasures on the manifest surface, Peter will know for sure that the treasure didn't burn. Mozzie wants proof of the manifest, so Neal breaks into Peter's house while Peter and his wife Elizabeth are out. However, Neal realizes that if he tells Mozzie that the manifest is real, they can sell whatever wasn't included on the list and flee the country, making New York a distant memory. It would also mean that Neal could no longer return to NYC. Reluctant to leave, Neal lies to Mozzie and tells him that the manifest didn't exist. Matthew Keller, a long-time rival of Neal's with dubious ethics, later appears, believing that Neal had the treasure. Keller tries to force Neal to hand everything over to him, but Neal is rescued by the FBI. Before Keller can be apprehended, an antiquities expert and fence Raquel LaRoque, whom Neal had just worked with, tries to kill Keller in order to claim a $6M bounty. This is the exact amount of a Degas painting Mozzie has been wanting to fence, but is on the manifest. Neal is then forced to admit to Mozzie that the manifest exists, which makes Mozzie angry at Neal for lying to him. After retrieving the fenced Degas and replacing it with a forgery, Mozzie declares that his partnership with Neal is over. Soon after, Neal discovers that in order to force him to give Keller the treasure, Keller has kidnapped Elizabeth and revealed to Peter that Neal did have possession of the missing treasure and had willingly hidden it from him. Enraged, Peter angrily confronts Neal, who earnestly tells Peter that he would give everything if it meant getting Elizabeth back. Mollified, Peter goes with Neal to the warehouse, but finds that Mozzie—in his anger at Neal—had moved everything. Desperately, Neal goes to contact Mozzie and tell him that Elizabeth had been kidnapped. Mozzie returns to help save her, and Keller is then caught and sent to prison. Neal's relationship with Peter and Mozzie eventually heals and strengthens, and when Peter's mentor Agent Kramer comes to sabotage Neal's communal hearing, Peter attempts to thwart it. However, Kramer finds evidence of Neal's theft of a Raphael painting, which turns out to be stored at Ellen Parker's home in Roosevelt Island. Peter helps cover for him and enlists Sara's help, where she tells Kramer that Neal helped her recover the painting and had been in processing for a few weeks now. Unsatisfied, Kramer later returns with US Marshals to arrest Neal under bogus charges of public endangerment, at which Peter gives Neal the signal to skip town. Neal then returns to his apartment in June's townhouse, cuts his anklet, and hops on a plane with Mozzie. Season Four Neal ends up in Cape Verde with Mozzie, under the names James Maine and Barry respectively. There, he meets and dates a cafe owner named Maya, and is later introduced to a resident bigshot named Dobs. He pays Dobs $25G for protection from disturbance and assurance that the local law enforcers wouldn't turn him in to other foreign governments. However, he is later contacted by Peter and warned that an agent with dubious morals was coming after him. Peter tracks Neal down, whereupon the agent, Collins, finds the information and heads to Cape Verde. Peter follows and helps Neal escape, were they discover that Dobs is actually an alias. The man turns out to be Robert McLeish, #4 on the FBI's Most Wanted list, and Peter turns the situation into an opportunity to get Neal back to New York without getting an immediate maximum sentence in prison. Upon returning to New York, Neal attempts to get to know more about his father through Ellen, who had been his father James' partner. Ellen makes contact with Samuel Phelps, who continued the investigation after Ellen was placed into WitSec, and asks him to work with Neal on the case. Ellen, however, dies before she can mediate a meeting between Sam and Neal, forcing Neal to chase down Sam. Sam agrees to work with Neal so long as the FBI aren't involved, forcing Neal to keep Peter in the dark. Relationships Peter Burke Peter is an FBI agent who takes on Neal as a consultant after capturing him again for breaking out of prison to find Kate. Throughout their work together, they have developed a complicated friendship, and in the episode "Vital Signs" Neal confesses to Peter (while under the influence of a sedative), that he's the only one Neal can trust. Mozzie Mozzie is Neal's ally and confidant. At the end of Season 1, Neal and Moz say goodbye and part ways. However, in season 2 of the series, in the episode, "Withdrawl" Mozzie is re-introduced and their relationship is continued on the investigation of Kate's murder. In Season 3, Neal and Mozzie's friendship becomes strained when Mozzie discovers Neal lied to him. Their friendship is healed by the time they leave New York. Ellen Parker/Catherine Hill Ellen lived with Neal and his mother in St. Louis while they were in WitSec. After Neal's mother became despondent and unreliable, Ellen took over raising Neal and treated him like a son. Their relationship became strained when Ellen finally told Neal the truth about his father, causing him to run away and change his name from WitSec-alias Danny Brooks back to Neal—his birth name. Later, Neal and Ellen heal their relationship, and Neal introduces her to Kate. Neal also entrusts Ellen with the Raphael painting of St. George and the Dragon that he stole. Upon his return to New York, Neal approaches Ellen about the topic of his father. Ellen calls in an old friend named Sam and asks that Neal work with him to figure out what happened to Neal's father James' case. She died before she could introduce them to each other, and Neal vows to find out who murdered her. Kate Moreau Kate is Neal's love interest and partner in the Mentor program mentioned at the end of Season 1. Kate and Neal's first date was in a rich man's hotel room which they conned their way in. They ordered the most expensive things they could find on the menu, including five $1000 hamburgers. From the window there was a broken down bridge, and from the angle and the way the sun hit it, it was beautiful. They never wanted to leave the room. Neal immortalises this image in a pencil sketch in a hotel room behind another painting. After Kate breaks up with him, Neal escapes prison to get her back, but discovers that she has disappeared. He then strikes a deal with the FBI to work as their consultant so that he could get out of prison and search for her. Upon discovering that she needed to find a music box Neal had allegedly stolen, Neal works around the FBI and steals the music box for real just to get her back. When Kate dies in a plane-bombing, Neal agrees to return to his consulting job at the FBI so that he could find out who killed Kate and get revenge. Alexandra Hunter Alex is a high-end fence and an old lover and ally of Neal's. According to records that the FBI has on her, she has 'powerful friends', and has only been arrested once—in France. Neal met Alex while he worked for Vincent Adler. He singled her out and set her up in a meeting with Adler, where she was scared away. Alex later approached Neal, where he informed her that he 'would not apologize' for his actions, and that it was his job to catch her and her job to 'not get caught.' Alex then asks him out for drinks, where they eventually end up in Neal's bed. Afterwards, she tells him about the music box that Vince Adler wants, informing Neal that it was 'worth about as much' as the Holy Grail. After some time, Neal contacts her to do the music box job, but it ultimately fails and Neal is forced to leave Alex in a French hospital while he returned to New York. Towards the end of the first season, Alex was given a plane ticket to Italy by the FBI, having helped Neal recover the elusive music box from the Italian consulate in Manhattan, because there was a 'target on her back'. During the episode 'Copycat Caffrey' she asks Neal for his help. She has been fencing gold Krugerrands in an effort to stay under the radar, but is about to be set up by one of Mozzie's contacts who is selling her out to the people who are hunting for Neal. After helping the FBI to recover a stolen painting and a case full of Krugerrands, Peter presents her with a ticket to Italy and she leaves the country, but not for long. Early in the second season Alex returns to New York and helps Neal steal the music box again—this time from Diana's personal safe, although his method to contact her involves forging an FBI case file and a clandestine meeting on a rooftop. He makes a comment that he doesn't have her phone number, and that it would be easier to contact her 'like a normal person' if she gave it to him. After Alex anonymously donates the music box to the Russians—its' rightful owners—she meets Neal at his apartment and finally gives him her number before leaving. Neal is later reunited with Alex when Vincent Adler kidnaps them and Peter. With Alex hostage, Adler forced Neal and Peter to open the TNT-covered entrance to the German U-boat full of Nazi treasure. Once the three of them are saved by Peter's FBI team, Neal and Alex kiss, revealing that there is still some lingering romantic feelings between them. Sara Ellis Sara is an insurance agent who accused Neal of stealing a Raphael painting of St. George and the Dragon. She also testified in Neal's trial. Their romance started when she kissed Neal in the archives of Ellis Island while looking for references of a German U-boat Radio Operator who escaped an Ellis Island Detention Facility. Their relationship ended when Sara broke up with Neal after she found out about the treasure Neal was hiding, stating that they belong in two different worlds. While working on a case together, Neal acted jealously when Sara revealed that one of their suspects was her ex-boyfriend again, indicating that he still had feelings for her. However, they decided to remain friends instead of getting back together and occasionally fuck each other. See Also thumb|200px|right|Neal and Kate *Neal's Wardrobe *Gallery:Neal Caffrey Category:Main Characters Category:Characters Category:Male Characters